Julie Lythcott-Haims

Your “I know I’m an adult” fending-for-yourself moment is coming (if it hasn’t happened already). And it will be shitty and scary and you will want to be a child who gets to turn away and be held in someone’s
arms as somebody else takes over. But you won’t. As my friend Janet likes to say, “You’ll say to yourself, ‘Crap, where are the adults?’ And then you’ll realize ‘Aw shit. It’s me.’” And you’ll step up to face it. Which will turn out to feel terrifying on the way to feeling very empowering. And once it is all behind you, you, like me, will turn out to be fine

Is it scary out there in the wide-open landscape of life where you fend for yourself and where anything is possible? Yeah.

But you have to. And you must want to. And you need to learn how.

It’s your turn.

your partner is terminally ill, drop everything and be together—though I hope to God I never “need” to do it.)